1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a shopping cart and, more particularly, to a modified shopping cart which automatically returns to a desired location when not in use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of shopping carts in retail shopping is well known. Shoppers at grocery stores or other retail outlets often utilize such carts to gather their items in the retail outlet and also to carry their purchased items to a vehicle when they depart. A problem which is created by such customary use of shopping carts is that once carts are used, the shoppers often leave carts where they last used them, which is typically scattered all over a parking lot. Consequently, the retail outlet must typically employ workers specifically to round up and return carts to a desired location (or have workers stop performing other tasks to do the same) so they may be easily accessed by future shoppers.
Thus, there remains a need for a shopping cart which would eliminate the need for retail workers to manually round up shopping carts after use and return them to a desired location. It would be helpful if such an automated return shopping cart was motorized to enable it to propel itself when required. It would be additionally desirable for such an automated return shopping cart employed global positioning system (“GPS”) components and sensors to enable shopping carts to navigate themselves to a predetermined, desired location while avoiding pedestrians and vehicles.
The Applicant's invention described herein provides for a motorized shopping car adapted to automatically propel itself to a predetermined, desired location at a retail outlet when not in use by a shopper. The primary components of Applicant's automated return shopping cart are a base cart modified to include a power source, a GPS system, sensors for detecting objects, sensor for detecting use activity, and a programmable logic controller. When in operation, the automated return shopping cart automatically recognizes when it is no longer in use and returns itself to a desired location to wait to be used again. As a result, many of the limitations imposed by cart corralling procedures of the prior art are removed.